I AM a therapist for children with learning disabilities. I find it very disturbing that you would choose to publish the unqualified opinion of one doctor that autism is caused by parents not loving their children enough (”Emergence of the ‘new autism’ epidemic”– New Sunday Times, April 27).

I say “unqualified” because the article is merely an opinion not backed by research of any sort. The belief that autism is caused by poor parenting is a mistaken belief that has long since been disproved by medical science.

In his article, Dr Amar Singh states we are witnessing an epidemic of “new autism” versus “the old fashioned RainMan-Dustin Hoffman autism”. There is no such thing as “new autism” and “classical autism”.

Autism is autism, differentiated only by degree of severity. How severe one’s condition is depends entirely on how much brain tissue is damaged.

If Dr Amar believes he has discovered a new disease (social or medical), he should conduct a proper scientific study and publish his findings in a peer-reviewed international medical journal, not expound his unscientific opinions in a family newspaper.

It is, indeed, de riguer for doctors to make observations of their patients, but Dr Amar has demonstrated complete ignorance of the cardinal rule of research: Correlation does not imply causation. Just because he observes more cases of autism among children who are entrusted to maids does not mean that entrusting one’s children to maids causes autism.

This is nothing more than an incidental correlation because people seeking his services can afford maids. Upper-class families are also more educated and tend to seek help from doctors if they see their children showing signs of autism.

Parents from lower socioeconomic classes are less educated and more likely to seek help from bomohs or mediums instead.

Many even hide their children at home out of shame and never seek help at all.

The fact that Dr Amar sees more patients from rich families in no way means that autism is more prevalent among the rich — it merely means that poor people do not go to doctors for such problems.

For a paediatrician, Dr Amar also demonstrates a shocking lack of understanding of developmental psychology. If a child is left with a childminder who does not provide enriching activities or interactions with the child and instead leaves him to watch TV all day, the child would likely end up with 10 IQ points lower than if he were engaged in enriching activities from a young age. One does not develop autism from watching too much TV.

If the parents are too busy to care for the child, and the child feels that he did not get enough love or attention from his parents, he might feel unloved, have separation anxiety, grow up with a lot of resentment, become neurotic, suffer from a lack of self-esteem, become rebellious or develop deviant behaviour, but he could never become autistic because of this.

Autism is a neuro-immune disorder that has nothing to do with how a child is raised.

The main cause of autism is cellular and brain damage due to heavy-metal poisoning from the environment, and primarily via thimerosal (mercury) and other neurotoxic additives used as preservatives in vaccines given to young children. You can read the scientific research at http://generationrescue.org/studies.html.

For Dr Amar to imply that a child can suffer cellular damage because his parents did not love him enough is unscientific and totally false and inaccurate.

It would be much more helpful if the New Straits Times would publish scientific articles (or at least people who talk about the scientific research) instead of baseless opinions.

I know several parents of children with autism, and I can only imagine how much hurt and grief you have caused to all of them, by implying that their children’s illness was caused by lack of love and caring on their part.

To parents of children with autism, I hope you will educate yourselves and not listen to any unhelpful people (doctors or otherwise) who tell you that autism is your fault.

Find your own answers and get support from parents who are in similar situations. Find a local NGO or go to http://generationrescue.org.

P.S., Alor Star

Source: NST – May 2, 2008